7-Step Roadmap for building an automated and scalable online business

When I first started my business, I was doing all the things you’ve heard of to grow your business. 

• Posting on social media around the clock
• Being in every Facebook Group for “growing my network”
• Sending direct messages to generate leads and sales
• Investing months of work into chaotic launches, some of which fell flat with less than 1 or 2 sales. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, those methods can work and they did help me build my brand to what it is today. But if I were to start from scratch today, they’re not the tactics I would prioritize.

Let me tell you why.

Since 2020, my business has generated a whopping $1.05 Million in revenue. And here’s the kicker – it’s not because I’ve been tirelessly focusing on social media and posting 24/7. In fact, I want to share with you my personal journey of going through burnout in 2022 and taking a step back from social media, while still being able to sustain a revenue of $300k in just 12 months.

It was during that burnout period that I realized I had to prioritize my self-care and find ways to automate my sales and funnels in my business. I discovered that relying solely on social media wasn’t sustainable for me in the long run.

Now, I believe this process will shed light on exactly what I did to build my business without being chained to social media, and why I truly believe that social media isn’t everything.

Have you ever tried navigating the challenges of burnout? It’s tough, right? And the first thing that comes to mind is how to sustain your business when you’re feeling so drained and overwhelmed.

When you are the heart and soul of your business, taking care of yourself often takes a backseat. But here’s the thing – it eventually becomes challenging to sustain the success you’ve worked so hard to achieve if you’re not taking care of yourself.

Want a way to save this? I’m giving you my exact 7-step roadmap for automated funnels that makes me consistent 30K months and daily sales. Click here to download

The 7-Step Roadmap for building an automated and scalable online business

So stick around, because I’ll be sharing my 7-step Roadmap for building an automated and scalable online business all while explaining exactly how it helped me on my journey of overcoming burnout.

This process is a game-changer, and I know it can be for you too, especially if you are looking to generate more consistent income that consistently attracts followers and sales through your content.

This guide and roadmap will show you how. 

How does this 7-Step process work?

✔️Create one Signature Product built around your skills and interests

✔️Create one value-driven content strategy to grow an audience

✔️Create one Free Product Download for easy wins & lead generation

✔️Create one Entry-level product as an upgrade to the freebie

✔️Create one Automated sales funnel strategy for your signature offer

✔️Create one launch strategy to inject cash whenever you want

✔️Create company templates so you can repeat or even hire help

Why does this process work?

Using this strategy, you can show up authentically, give away free value, and trust your funnels and content to do the selling behind the scenes, so when you need a bigger cash injection (or need to take time off to recover from burnout), you can launch easily and with low-effort to an audience of warm leads and raving fans who are eager to buy anything you sell.

So, let’s dive in and discover how I achieved this!

Step 1. Craft Your Irresistible Signature Offer

1. Define the problem your offer solves: You can position your offer as the solution your target audience is looking for by understanding their needs and frustrations. By addressing a specific problem, you can create a stronger demand for it.
2. Develop a unique value proposition: Once you have identified the problem, it is essential to differentiate your offer from the competition. Determine one simple thing you can do that sets your product apart and how it provides unique value.
3. Create a step-by-step process for your offer: Provide a clear and structured process for your customer to follow. Break down the steps and outline the benefits and outcomes at each stage. This has 2 benefits to you. It helps you create content based on each step of the journey, which helps potential customers understand the journey they will go through and the value they will receive from your product. It also helps present a well-defined process to your customers once they’re on the inside of it.
4. Create and Test your offer: Before launching your offer, it is crucial to test it to ensure its effectiveness for your business and audience. Testing allows you to gather feedback, make necessary adjustments, and optimize your offer for better results. It can build your business revenue, yes, but also establish social proof and testimonials that can become great selling tools too!

The advantage of my own Signature Product during my burnout

I could not imagine going through burnout with the pressure of constantly needing to generate income. For this reason, my business model (a signature membership) turned out to be a godsend.

With a digital product membership in place, I have recurring revenue. The beauty of this model is that it provides financial stability, even during the time when I couldn’t be actively engaged.

During my burnout, I had a backlog of products made for the membership as well as some team members that helped make those products. 

Investing time into a signature product business model vs the alternative of constantly creating and launching new offers, turned out to be the backbone of everything during burnout.

The initial success of my signature product / membership had provided me with the revenue and funds so that I could invest in the help and create those resources ahead of time, so I wasn’t scrambling for help when I needed it most.

I often wonder what would have happened if I had not invested in those resources before burnout occurred?

Luckily, when burnout did come, those resources and investments turned out to be a key part of helping me recover too. The recurring revenue as well as the investments I made in a team and creating products ahead of schedule acted as a safety net for me.

For those of you seeking stability with an online business, I encourage you to explore creating a higher-ticket signature product like a membership, and investing in funnels and help sooner rather than later! 

STEP 2: Create one value-driven content strategy for just 2 platforms 

Choose 2 platforms to focus on for your content strategy

I prefer one social media & one for longer content like a Blog/YouTube

Define 3-5 value pillars

So that you content is profitable, you’ll want to pick these content pillars based on your niche signature offer, the pain points they experience, your suggestions, and the necessary actions that addresses their problems and goals

For example, my membership helps digital product businesses create profitable content using Canva templates and caption templates.

My value pillars are:

1. Canva Templates, Tips & Tricks
2. Content plans & strategies for Instagram
3. Content plans & strategies for Email Marketing
4. Content plans & strategies for Pinterest
5. Making money with Digital products & Automated Funnels

Create long form keyword-rich content First and using your pillars above

1. Identify long-tail keywords related to your selected content pillar.
2. Incorporate your keyword(s) naturally throughout the content, ensuring it reads smoothly.
3. Always use a Call-to-Action in your posts to drive people to your products, lead magnets and automated funnels so you can provide further value and generate leads)
4. Optimize your content for SEO by including relevant meta tags, alt attributes for images, and interlinking to other related content.
5. Repurpose and expand on this content for social media and your email newsletter
6. Be patient watch organic traffic start to come in from Google/YouTube searches

Create 4 types of posts to engage your audience on social media:

1. Motivational posts
2. Educational posts
3. Aspirational ‘lifestyle’ posts
4. Promotional posts with storytelling that sells

Create a posting schedule you can stick to and repeat that’s sustainable for you:

1. Posting once a week on your blog or YouTube (i.e.: SEO platform) + sharing it to your email newsletter
2. Post a few times per week on the social platform (while rotating through your content types and pillars)
3. Remember to
   • Use a Call-to-Action to drive people to your products, lead magnets and automated funnels so you can provide further value and generate leads
   • Engage your audience by asking engaging questions at least once per week on social media or your emails to encourage interaction and conversation and build a community

The advantage of my own simple content plan and having an SEO strategy during my burnout

When I found myself in the throes of burnout, I realized that it was essential to make time for my own healing journey and recovery. So, I made a deliberate decision to shift my focus and create space for self-care. 

One of the first steps I took was to stop posting to every platform that I had built up, and only focus on the 2 most important ones.

My Blog and Instagram.

I stopped posting as frequently too. I went from pushing out content week after week to just one post per month on my blog. I also went from daily posts on Instagram and TikTok to a more mindful approach based on how I was feeling, where I only posted a couple of times a month to Instagram.

By doing this, I not only freed up my schedule but also gave myself the opportunity to focus on my own well-being. I gained the much-needed mental space to focus on myself. By showing up only when I was “feeling like it”, I was able to show up as the better version of myself.

Plus, my business and content can be found on google and other platforms organically because I set my sights on optimizing my content for search engines  a long time ago. This work I had put in became my only consistent source of leads and potential customers.  If organic traffic wasn’t coming from SEO and evergreen content , anyone in my position would probably needed to pay for ads to keep their business afloat. 

I didn’t need ads. I didn’t run any ads. I was able to reap the benefits from all that prior dedication and a well-thought-out SEO strategy during my burnout.

Step 3: Create A Free Product Download for Easy Wins and Lead Generation

Creating a free product to download is often referred to as an opt-in, freebie, or lead magnet. This is a great way to gather leads from your audience.

This could be anything from a free eBook to a template. To create a lead magnet, start by brainstorming some ideas for content that your target audience would find useful.

• When choosing a lead magnet topic, focus on specific pain points and offer a quick solution.
• A successful lead magnet should be specific and results-driven to provide easy wins
• Simple free tools like Canva and Google Docs can be used to create lead magnets

To deliver your lead magnet, you’ll need an email service provider. I use ConvertKit.

Here’s how I use ConvertKit:

• To create a Lead Magnet Landing Page form
• To send a welcome email sequence
• To deliver the Freebie to subscribers
• To collect email addresses and grow a list of leads/subscribers
• To send weekly email newsletters
• To build your automated sales funnels (see the next steps)

The advantage of having an email list building strategy during burnout

My time during burnout made me truly appreciate and realize the immense value of my email list and automated email list building systems. Email marketing became my go-to tool for sustaining my business and finding my way back to a healthier work-life balance. Let me tell you, it made all the difference!

Because I wasn’t posting as many social media posts, YouTube videos or blog posts, I recognized the incredible benefit I had with direct communication with my audience through email. Instead of relying solely on social media, I could reach my community right in their own inboxes at any moment to provide value and make new sales. 

Step 4. Create your first trip-wire funnel to sell an entry-level product

Whether you have a product ready to sell or need to create one, you’ll want to make sure your product is irresistible and related to your freebie.

This product should be the natural next step related to your freebie and lower prices. It can also be simply more of the same thing as the freebie, or a better upgraded version of the freebie. 

For example: If your freebie is a template, your product could be 20 more templates. Or, if your freebie is a checklist, your product could be a video tutorial or digital course.

You’ll need:

• Your freebie process from above
• A thank you page for your freebie that acts as a product sales page for your entry-level product
• A Checkout / Cart
• A follow up email & product delivery system

I use WooCommerce for my products and as mentioned before, convert kit for emails.

Step 5. Create an Automated sales funnel strategy for your signature offer

What’s an automated sales funnel? An automated sales funnel is a system that uses automation to guide potential customers through the sales journey. It usually involves a series of automated emails, sales pages, sometimes a webinar replay, and countdown timers. The goal is to provide a personalized and seamless experience for potential customers while minimizing the need for you to be involved to manually follow-up with leads or host live webinars.

1. You’ll place your lead magnet and your entry-level mini product at the beginning of your automated funnel as a tripwire.
2. You’ll start getting immediate sales after someone opts into your email list to download the lead magnet during the first step of your funnel
3. You’ll create a follow up email sequence that offers value and suggests an automated webinar replay as a way to upgrade their learning for free
4. You’ll create a sales page and offer that is shared during the automated webinar replay
5. You’ll follow up with webinar attendees with a replay to the webinar
6. You’ll set up an automated email sequence that follows up with benefits, features, testimonials and call to action to buy
7. You’ll use countdown timers and limited time bonuses to offer incentive to join now

But don’t stop here.

By implementing an automated sales funnel for passive sales every day and having a live launch strategy to inject cash whenever needed, you can create a robust and flexible sales system.

Step 6. Create a launch strategy to inject cash whenever you want

What’s a live launch strategy? A live launch strategy is designed to publicly create excitement and anticipation around a product. It typically involves launching the product live to an audience, such as through live webinars, fresh content, and new product updates. The primary goal of a live launch strategy is to generate a sense of urgency and create a mindset that this is a special, not-to-be-missed opportunity. 

If you are just starting, you may want to begin with a live sale and launch strategy to launch your signature offer, to also validate your sales process, sales messaging, and understand audience needs.

Live launches are excellent for building hype and can be used to introduce new content or additions to your product or offer.

A live launch plan typically involves:

1. Growing your audience and building anticipation with value driven content
2. Leveraging a lead magnet to grow your leads
3. Following up with new leads with an invitation to join an early bird list who get first purchase opportunity
4. Sending an early invite email to your wait list before doors open
5. Opening the doors to your offer during a LIVE webinar
6. Offering special offers and bonuses during the live webinar as a treat for people who show up
7. Continuing to post about your offer with promotion and value driven content on social and in emails
8. Following up with your email list with a series of emails  showing the benefits, features, testimonials and call to action to buy
9. Closing the doors of the offer, sending up to 3 emails on the last day
10. Following up with your list asking why they didn’t buy
11. Offering a limited time downsell or alternate offer to those people

Questions I often get about Steps 5 & 6

Q: Why do I need an automated funnel and a live launch strategy?

Healthy growth in your business comes from having a mix of both live launch funnels and evergreen funnels. Different types of customers exist within your audience, with varying levels of readiness to take action or make a decision on a product offer.

By having both an automated funnel and a live launch strategy, you can cater to different customers needs and capture a wider range of potential customers.

The automated funnel is always available and relevant, allowing you to capture new sales and passive revenue even after a live launch ends.

Q: Do I have to do a webinar?

Don’t get caught up on the term ‘webinar’ too much. I would think of this as any type of  long form content, preferably a video or video series because this creates a deeper understanding and connection with your audience. Webinar is just the common thing used. But, if you like the idea of 3 shorter videos in a pre-recorded series, I’ve done that and that works too!

The advantage of automated funnels and live launches during my burnout

Before my burnout, I would do Live launches every couple of months. But, the reality set in, I wasn’t going to be able to do that. So, I had to rely on my automated funnel a lot.

Automated funnels are set up to sell to your subscriber during their first interactions with your business. However, I didn’t want to neglect anyone who had gone through the automated funnel and didn’t buy yet.

There’s one thing I’ve learned over the years in my business. The first “NO” isn’t a “NEVER”. Basically, sometimes people aren’t always ready during the first funnel. But they could be ready soon. I’ve known for a long time that my Live launches helped anyone on the fence take the leap.

So, during the first month of my burnout, when I decided to take a step back, I went ahead and automated 12-months of my live launches to my entire email list too, and this one thing changed the game for me!

Instead of continuously “live” launching my signature product (the profitable content membership) on all platforms and in emails, I switched to using ONLY automated emails and a completely automated sales page for enrollment. Automation became a key part of my burnout recovery strategy because live launching and sales is not for the burnt-out business owner!

I’ve never tried to have both an automated funnel and automated launches before. But, I tried it and I’m excited to share that I was able to 100% automate live launches (as well as have automated funnels) for the whole 12 months of burnout and it helped me generate consistent revenue while taking the pressure off.

It made my recovery time during burnout much easier. I’d find myself waking up one morning confused and wondering why sales were so high until I remembered a launch I automated must have started.

The only way that this was possible was because I had a system and templates for everything, which brings me to the final step of my process.

Step 7. Create company templates, checklists, and processes 

When it comes to running a successful business, efficiency is key. As you embark on your journey to create a simple automated business, Step 7 plays a crucial role – creating company templates and processes. This step not only helps you streamline your operations but also enables you to repeat these steps quickly for new products and potentially hire help in the future.

Here is a list of templates and checklists to create while you build your business:

• Social Media templates/checklists
• Email templates/checklists
• Blog templates/checklists
• Funnel templates/checklists
• Product templates/checklists
• Project Management templates/checklists
• Task-specific templates/checklists
• Customer service templates/checklists

Lessons Learned and Takeaways

What was your biggest takeaway from my story? For most, I’m hoping that your biggest takeaway is that social media isn’t everything! Sure, it’s important, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of your business success and resilience.

My blog, email list, and signature product became the true pillars of sustainability for my business during burnout. Social media has its merits, no doubt about it. It allows us to connect with our audience, share valuable content, make sales and build a brand reputation.

But as I began my recovery with burnout, I quickly realized that social media was not going to work for my mental health and I could not imagine being in a position where I was so reliant on social media that I couldn’t take a break from it. 

That’s why I wanted to share this process with you! I truly believe it’s crucial to build a simple business with automation and a signature product at it’s foundation.

This process will create sustainability and allow you to focus on longevity.

• Prioritize a Signature Product for easier recurring revenue
• Prioritize Value driven content and SEO strategies for consistent traffic and leads
• Prioritize Automations and Email Marketing for consistent revenue
• Prioritize Having a Launch Strategy for cash injections when you want them
• Prioritize systems and templates so you can invest in help
• Don’t Prioritize every new opportunity (shiny objects)
• Don’t Neglect your well-being
• Don’t Prioritize going viral on social media

To wrap it up, I encourage you to save this blog post as a reminder of the crucial elements you need to work on for your business. 

Want an easy way to save this blog?  I’m giving you my exact 7-step roadmap for automated funnels that makes me consistent 30K months and daily sales. Click here to download

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